Henni147

Right. I only remembered the high score. He had negative GOE on four elements in total. So... Nathan is still waiting for two clean skates at a big event. Shoma dito.

That's my attitude, too. The competition won't be fought out on the planned layout sheets alone. There are countless other factors that will decide about the placements. 1. Daily form and mood 2. Experience 3. Mental strength and intimidation (on and off the ice) 4. Support or extra pressure by media and fans 5. The judging 6. Skating Gods' malice or benevolence ... Helsinki 2017 and PyeongChang 2018 have thought us a lot in that perspective. Everyone's talking about "what if skater XY skates clean", but... how often has it actually happened that either of them has done two completely clean skates at the really big competitions (Olympics, Worlds, GPF)? Yuzu did it once at GPF '15, Nathan at Worlds last year and Boyang at Worlds '17. So it's still something really special and I wouldn't bet my money on a clean final group in Saitama... I trust in Yuzu that he considers all these things in his preparation, too

Nah, I think he'll save these babies for next season. Otherwise it will be too exhausting to improve and break his own records #Footnote: Since I've guessed Nijinsky as his new FS correctly, I'm a bit worried that this is not too far away from reality...

Tuesday, March 19. Yuzu's first official practice: Wednesday, March 20. Planned program contents for the men's event are announced:

Yes! Even though he has choreographers, coaches and other advisers, who help him to create his programs and feed him with essential ideas, at the end of the day he's still the mastermind behind everything he does. EDIT: I think one difference between him, Plushenko and Johnny is their interaction/communication with the audience. Plushy and Johnny pull the crowd actively into their performance, while most of Yuzu's programs are more introverted. He says: "This is my skating world and you're free to enter", but Yuzu himself is locked in a bubble and dives 100% into his program. There's no distraction from the outside at all (same when he was singing full force at the rinkside). There's another key aspect, that Dick mentioned in the documentary: Yuzu really hates to fall indeed. He rather pops his jumps or forces himself into awkward landings, but he wants to stay on his feet at all costs, because a fall ruins his performance. (This might be one of the reasons, why he's more vulnerable and prone to serious injuries than others...) We've seen many skaters this season who gave themselves up after the first one or two mistakes and the entire program fell apart. If Yuzu makes mistakes, he fires up and throws some YOLO-jumps in to save what can be saved. He has this champion-attitude, fighting spirit and unbreakable will to win, when it really counts. I always have to think of his latest miracle at Rostelecom. Severely injured, changing his entire jump layout without any preparation and pulling of a performance like that... This is courage. One last thing: Yuzu's programs are still high quality content even with mistakes in them, because there are so many other highlights that can be rewarded. I remember his Chopin SP at Skate Canada 2015, where two of his three jumping passes were completely invalid and he ended up with mere 28 points in TES, but still scored nearly 45 in PCS, because everything else was so strong and worth watching. At CWW his career program marathon was a crowd pleaser without a single jump. In most cases the audience claps and screams after a quad or huge combo. Yuzu makes everyone freak out, before his step sequence has even started in Otonal... In that sense his performance is everything.

When I saw these backward crossrolls in the making of Seimei, I could see the entire fighting scene in front of me. Wise and clever Seimei avoiding a cascade of attacks from a dim and bulky opponent One of very few choreographies in figure skating that could create such a vivid and memorable image in my head. It was so simple and phenomenal at the same time.

I took the time to rewatch the NHK documentary with English subs and stopped at these words from Dick Button: I think the narrator misunderstood Dick here. The quad Loop was indeed a new jump, but still something within these "narrow rules". An additional quad increases your base value and gives you more options to create your jump layout. So it's worth (in points) to go for it. What Dick meant is something more rebellious I think. Completely new stuff that doesn't earn you many additional points in the current system or puts you even in disadvantage, but wins the heart of the audience and has the potential to change the skating world. Back in Dick's days big jumps and fast, well centered spins were something risky and really revolutionary. It changed the entire landscape of figure skating and laid the path for today's competitive format. In Yuzu's case there are some similar things like that: I think we can call him the pioneer of difficult and continuous transition work. Although you can earn high GOE for jumps with little steps and a lot of preparation as well, he prefers to go the more difficult way and melt all his elements into the choreo. Sure, he's not the only skater to do that nowadays, but he's the first who comes to my mind, whenever I think of "steps before jumps". The 4T+3A sequence is punished with a -20% reduction of its base value, but he goes for it, because it's cool and impressive. I can imagine that ISU will cancel this stupid rule after Yuzu's retirement and sequences will be popular alternatives to combination jumps in the future. At ACI this season Yuzu was asked, why he didn't put his SP combo into to the second half and he answered: "Because it fits the music better." I was really proud to be a fanyu that day. Same with the legendary backward crossrolls in Seimei. I really loved them even though they were not considered as "difficult steps" at that point... Shame that he was forced to drop them for his StSq LV... This is not really a technical thing, but it's cool that Yuzu's costume styles somehow break with gender stereotypes and are created with a lot of thought for a specific program. It doesn't matter which costume of Yuzu I see. I know immediately: Oh! It's POTO! Seimei! Origin! I was impressed, when Yuzu said that he doesn't like to change costumes for a specific program, because they belong together. It's part of the interpretation. Aye! Finally what makes Yuzu really extra and innovative to me: He's not only a skater, he's a creator as well. He chooses and designs his programs himself now with a story, a motive and a message. His care for details in the music cut, the choreo, the costume and the global concept is something unique. He's like an actor and executive producer in one person. That's why his programs appear so natural and authentic. They're his babies and you can feel it

A little personal experience: Olympic Channel stays a true Fanyu https://www.olympicchannel.com/en/stories/news/detail/laureus-comeback-award-hanyu-vonn/ Yuzu in the header, Yuzu in the headlines plus extra paragraph for him. I guess they're more disappointed than we are

15th February, 13:46 at TCC, Toronto, Ontario, Canada:

Ladies and Gentlemen: the complete 200-club of men's free skating It's actually the complete 300-club, too. Plus Pat-chan. (His highest combined total was 295.27 at Bompard '13.)

Under the current ISU rules 4+4 is an invalid combo. Only 4+3 or 3+4 is allowed. The 4A doesn't count as an Axel-jump either (because ISU ). So the highest possible SP score under the current system would be: 11.50 + 5.75 4Lz 8.00 + 4.00 3A (12.50 + 5.90) × 1.1 + 6.25 X 4A+3Lz (with change of rotation direction between the jumps) 3.20 + 1.60 FCSp4 3.00 + 1.50 CSSp4 3.50 + 1.75 CCoSp4 3.90 + 1.95 StSq4 ------------------ 76.14 TES 50.00 PCS ------------------ 126.14 TSS

Yep. This has to be framed and saved forever. The overall resonance on Twitter is jaw dropping. Fact: Yuzu-related posts have brought more likes, retweets and attention to Laureus' Twitter page than the entire rest together... Plus: "a message from the main man himself"... It would be funny, if the main man himself didn't appear tomorrow However, I hope they don't put him under pressure too much. Awards are great, but the Comeback King has another Mars mission in front of him... Can't believe that we celebrate the anniversary already. Incredible how time flies. Omedeto, Yuzu!!

I wouldn't be surprised at all, if his biggest fanclub travelled all the way through blizzards and snowstorms to feature him again: https://mobile.twitter.com/olympicchannel/status/1096829582047629315 Olympic Channel always has this perfect timing and feeling how to please Fanyus

Tbh I don't think that Javi will travel to all the way to Saitama unless Brian forces him to be there as Yuzu's personal motivation booster. In that case the organizers might make an exception and give him an accreditation card with the label "MASCOT" so that he's allowed to enter the rinkside

I guess, Yuzu's mood barometer for his Worlds FS in Saitama looks something like this (list of negative and positive influence factors):

Same thought. It's been quite a while, but it never gets old. I really love to watch this playful and entertaining Yuzu! He makes everything look so easy peasy in this program and his dorky smile is everything. It's a shame that many people only remember a disappointing men's event in Sotchi. This SP shouldn't be overshadowed by negative memories... I know, I really should ignore comments like this one, but the reasoning of some people just fascinates me #Footnote: I won't delete my channel.

I'll do my best

It's ready!! My preview clip for Worlds in Saitama!! #Sidenote: This video was originally intended to be a preview for the Grand Prix Final in Vancouver, but right after Yuzu's injury at Rostelecom and his likely withdrawal I just couldn't bring it over my heart to cut him out... So I decided to recycle the old material and add some new touches like the profile pics. 4CC turned a few things upside down this weekend, but I hope it was worth the long wait

First interview in Saitama [three days before SP]:

According to this tweet the judging panel for the men's event at Worlds looks as follows: CAN CHN TPE CRO CZE FRA GEO ISR MEX POL ESP SUI TUR I don't know, who will be sitting in the technical panel. Looking at 4CC and all the questionable calls... this seems to be not less important...

I wonder in which language they communicate. Doubt that Chinese or Japanese work? So English maybe? If TCC is overcrowded, they may consider to join forces and build the "YuBo"-quality-skating-learning-and-doing-alliance Would be fun to watch.

In Germany the Laureus Award will be aired/streamed live on monday, 18th February on Skysport.de for free. No idea, if Yuzu will be there, but if you need footage, I could try to record and share it

Yuzu might intimidate the bouncer with his death stare in the entrance hall, if he doesn't let him in, but let's be honest: Yuzuru Hanyu and Casino is a veeery spicy and dangerous combination. I mean: he really hates to lose...

It's strange, but I can't worry about the free. Yet. Way too many question marks at this point. (Sweat will come after the first public practice for sure ) There's one thing that would be really great: Finally some backstage footage with Yuzu and Jason at Worlds. They share the same practice rink everyday, but we've barely seen them interacting since Jason's arrival at TCC (apart from some group pics). I was so happy to hear in Meryl's interview that they have an eye on each other in practice and talk about skating stuff after the sessions. It would be awesome, if both participated in this year's FaOI tour

When you update Wikipedia tables and other statistics, you always find something that makes you chuckle. Sure, statistics don't win any competitions, but I'm totally relaxed before Saitama now